


Rivalry

by CaptainSophieStark



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26640496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainSophieStark/pseuds/CaptainSophieStark
Summary: Reader is a senior auror for the MACUSA, chasing down the head of a smuggling ring that deals in dark objects. When the target slips through reader's fingers and escapes to England, the reader gets paired with a certain auburn-haired Hogwarts grad. After a raid where the reader (an Ilvermorny grad) manages to take out more enemies than Theseus, a competition inspired by the schools' rivalry kicks off while they finish the manhunt.
Relationships: Theseus Scamander/Reader
Kudos: 13





	Rivalry

"Stay right where you are!" I yelled, leveling my wand at the man I'd been chasing all over New York for the past forty minutes.

The man slowly raised his hands, but the look on his face told me he hadn't really given up. I started moving closer. I didn't want to stun him if I didn't have to, but I couldn't let him get away from me.

See, I was a senior auror for the Magical Congress of the United States of America. My department had been tracking the head of a criminal organization dealing in the trade of dark objects for a little over a year, and we'd finally gotten a good tip on the head of the group. I tracked him to a safe house in New York, chased him through the city for the better part of an hour, and now I finally had him cornered in an alley.

I was not letting him get away this time.

I hit him with a spell first thing that kept him from disapparating, hence the long chase. Still, I couldn't be sure he wouldn't try to stun me at the last second, or pull some ridiculous last trick out of his hat.

I edged closer, refusing to lower my wand and keeping my eyes trained on the man in front of me. If he so much as flinched, I'd stun him on the spot.

I got within five feet when the door of a restaurant leading into the alley flew open right next to me. I had to dive or get smacked with a door, and when I looked up again, my target had a can from the garbage in his left hand.

"Drop it!" I shouted, but he was gone before I'd even finished the first word.

A Portkey. A garbage Portkey, and a stupid door. In less than three seconds, my entire chase suddenly meant nothing.

And now I had a muggle busboy to Obliviate too.

****************

After a few days of extensive detective work, my team and I managed to track our target's Portkey. He'd gone all the way across the ocean, and according to a few of our informants, he was hiding out in London. Which meant I was taking a trip.

Wizarding travel to and from the US was pretty limited. For the most part, we required muggle travel in and out of the country. However, since nobody here wanted the Ministry of Magic getting the payoff after doing none of the work, I was getting an exception. My boss arranged a Portkey for me, and just four hours after getting a location, I was standing outside the British Ministry of Magic.

I walked inside confidently, getting directions from the first person I saw and heading straight for the office of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. I'd never been here before, but thankfully, it wasn't too hard to find.

I knocked on the door and strutted inside as soon as I heard a "come in". I was greeted by two men sitting at a round table, looking expectantly at me to take the third seat.

"Y/F/N Y/L/N. Welcome," said the older man. Torquil Travers, Head of Magical Law Enforcement. The younger man next to him could only be Theseus Scamander, the famous war hero turned Head Auror.

"Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here," I said, sitting at last and looking between the two men. Truthfully, I didn't want to be here, wasting time in a meeting. Every second we waited was another second my target could be escaping, but this was their country, and I had to play by their rules.

I just hoped this wouldn't take too long.

"How have you found your stay so far?" asked Travers, beating around the bush as he shuffled through a stack of papers. Theseus kept his eyes locked on me, so I couldn't even glare to vent some frustration.

"Well, I came straight here as soon as I got in so... I'd have to say it's too early to tell."

Travers just kept shuffling through his papers, so I decided to continue.

"The trip will certainly get five stars from me as soon as I get my target."

At that, Travers stopped his shuffling and looked up at me. He stared without saying anything, and I stared right back, reclined in my chair. This man was on some kind of power trip, but I wasn't going to back down.

"Fine. You want to get to work so badly, then do it. You'll be assisting Mr. Scamander, so you can work from his office."

My mood soured as soon as the words left his mouth. I sat up straight and scowled at Travers, ignoring the other auror.

"I'm sorry, I think I might have misheard you. Did you say 'assisting'?"

"I did." Travers sat all the way up now too, leaning forward and staring at me with a self-important air about him and continuing in a patronizing tone. "You're not in your jurisdiction anymore, Y/L/N. You're in our country now, and so is your fugitive. You'll be doing things our way, and a Ministry auror will be leading the case from now on."

I clenched my fists and tried to pick just one of the many choice phrases that came to mind to retort with, but Travers spoke up again before I got the chance.

"Of course, if you can't handle taking a backseat, then you're welcome to go back to America."

Every muscle in my body wanted to launch across the table and knock that smug look off of Travers' face, but I stopped myself. I swallowed my pride and my protests, and took a deep breath to calm myself.

"No, no that will be fine. I... I look forward to working with Mr. Scamander on this case." I could barely get the words out through my gritted teeth, but I manageed.

"Wonderful," said Travers, sounding cheery as he returned to his papers. "Theseus, if you wouldn't mind taking this to your office?"

"Of course, sir." Theseus stood, and I did too, although my motion was a little more strained than his. Now that I was standing, the urge to jack Travers in his smirking face had doubled, but I managed to get ahold of myself enough to follow Theseus out the door.

I knew it wouldn't be the greatest start to our working relationship, but I couldn't stop myself from letting out a frustrated groan as soon as we were out of earshot of Travers. Damn that man.

"Not excited to work together?" asked Theseus as he started leading me down the hallway to his office.

"No, sorry, it's not that. You seem like a good guy, and from what I've heard, you'd be a great partner."

"Then what's the issue?" he asked, holding the door to his office for me once we'd reached it. It was close to Travers' office, but still far enough away that he probably wouldn't hear me cursing him through the walls. Perfect.

"Theseus, let me ask you something. When you've been working a case for more than a year, when you finally get a lead and someone barely slips through your fingers, when you've been working day and night for at least forty-eight hours... would you be happy about passing the lead off to an auror from another country and taking an assistant role?"

Theseus grimaced as he took a seat at his desk.

"No, I wouldn't be."

"Yeah, well, that's me right now." I plopped down in the seat across from him, crossing my arms unhappily.

Theseus sighed and looked at me, an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry about Travers. He can be... a bit intense." I scoffed. A bit? "But everything he said back there was more about posturing for the Ministry than anything actually reflecting how we handle the case. That's up to us. And I would much rather have you as a partner than an assistant."

I didn't respond for a minute, because I hadn't quite registered his words yet. I'll admit, that was not the answer I was expecting.

"So... if I were to tell you where we needed to go and then take the lead on going there and busting everybody in sight... you would be alright with that?"

"I would."

I grinned, jumping up and reaching out to shake Theseus' hand.

"I like you, Scamander! Now let's go, there's a warehouse in London that I wanted to be at, like, an hour ago."

****************

Theseus and I apparated a little ways away from the warehouse, so we could scope it out before going in. We crept forward together, and I took the lead. With a little magic combined with peeking through windows, it didn't take long to figure out exactly who was in the warehouse.

"Three men," I whispered, turning back to him in our hiding spot just outside the warehouse. "I don't think any of them are the ring leader I tracked in New York."

Theseus nodded, glancing back at the warehouse. "That's okay. Hopefully when we bring these three in and raid their hideout we'll get a clue that leads to us to your target."

"I sure hope so. You ready to go?"

"I am." I raised my wand to apparate in, but Theseus grabbed my arm and stopped me. "But I'd like to ask you to stun first and ask questions later. I know that's not always the MACUSA's go to, but I think that's our best course of action today."

"I agree," I said, nodding. After the alleyway in New York, I wasn't going to pull my punches, even if they all surrendered as soon as they saw us.

"Alright then. We'll apparate in on three." I nodded again as Theseus dropped my arm, getting ready as best I could for whatever lie ahead as he counted us down. "Three... two... one."

As soon as the last word left his mouth, we both sprang into action. I appeared on one side of the warehouse, and I could see Theseus on the other. Three men sat between us, calmly playing cards until they noticed they had visitors.

"Stupify!" I cried, taking out the first one before any of them could react. The remaining two shot out of their seats, but with another red jet of light from me and one from Theseus, they quickly fell back to the ground.

"Nice work," called Theseus, walking towards the three unconscious men. I moved to join him.

"Thanks. I just wish the ring leader had been here too."

"Don't worry, we'll get him. This warehouse might be able to tell us a few things, and I'm sure these two will have some clues for us once they're on their feet again."

I nodded, looking around the warehouse for anything obvious. If their boss used a Portkey in New York, maybe we'd find another one here that we could trace.

"Nice shooting," Theseus called, examining the three men laying unconscious on the ground. He got to work tying their hands and taking their wands, just to be safe.

"Well what did you expect? I'm an Ilvermorny grad," I said with a grin, walking back towards Theseus. He scoffed.

"I'm impressed you managed to do so well despite your education. Everyone knows Hogwarts is better."

"You can say and think whatever you want buddy, but there are three unconscious bodies on the ground and I put two of them there. Last time I checked, you only got one, Mr. Hogwarts."

Theseus laughed, turning and shaking his head at me in amazement.

"Well, when we finally find your original target and we go to bring him in, we'll just have to see who takes out the most bad guys then, won't we?"

I grinned. "Theseus Scamander, are you proposing a competition?"

"I am."

"Then I'm in." I got all the way back to Theseus, and we shook on it. Now I had twice as much reason to get a location on my target.

I had an attractive British auror's ass to kick.

****************

Two weeks later, and Theseus and I had hit a brick wall. We'd been working tirelessly to find some lead, some clue that would put everything together and give us a location on the ring leader. We came in early and stayed in Theseus' office trying to find something until late every night. Still, we'd gotten nowhere.

"I think I'm starting to go crazy," I groaned, dropping the stack of papers I'd been looking through and collapsing backward in the chair.

"So the words on the page are starting to laugh at you too?" asked Theseus, doing the same and rubbing his eyes.

I nodded. "I swear, the transcript of the interrogations with the three guys we caught loses the most important paragraph every time I look at it."

Abruptly, Theseus stood from his desk and ran a hand through his hair.

"Alright, leave all your papers where they are. We both need a break, so I'm going to make some tea and we're both going to ignore this whole mess while we drink it."

Theseus walked over to a tea set in the opposite corner of the office from the desk. After our first night staying until one in the morning, we decided having access to tea without having to leave the room was essential.

I glanced at the clock and saw it was going on midnight. After two weeks of this at my office in New York, I really would have been going crazy. But as I stood and turned to see Theseus smiling tiredly at me, two cups of freshly-brewed tea with him, I realized I really didn't mind as much as I should have.

There were certainly worse places to be than spending long nights with Theseus.

Theseus was leaning against the table we'd put the tea set on, and I walked over to do the same right next to him. Silently, he passed me a cup, and I took it. I didn't say anything other than a mumbled thanks, mostly because I couldn't think about anything other than the work ahead of us. We'd long banned case discussion over tea, and I didn't want to be the one to break the rule.

"I take it your silence is because you're still thinking about work?" mused Theseus.

"Yeah. I've read through the same papers so many times and stared at the same evidence that it's pretty much all I can see anymore."

"You need to distract yourself," Theseus said matter-of-factly, leaning more heavily against the desk and sipping his tea. "The whole point of this is to get our minds off work."

"Easier said than done."

"Oh, come on. Is the Ilvermorny graduate really giving up so easily?"

I grinned. "Low blow, Scamander."

"It worked, didn't it?" We sat there for a moment, and now my thoughts were completely focused on Theseus and his smile. And his eyes. And his hair— "So, tell me. What's normal life like for an auror in New York? Friends? Family? Boyfriend?"

"Small family that I see whenever I can, and my friends are pretty much just the people I work with, since I don't have too much time outside of work." I smiled and looked Theseus straight in the eye as I said the last part. "No boyfriend."

Theseus smiled at my words, shifting his weight a little and looking down.

"Well, that's..." He cleared his throat. "Good."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, feeling daring all of a sudden. "And why is that good?"

Theseus met my eyes again and grinned, apparently feeling the same rush of courage as I was.

"Because I'm not seeing anyone either."

"Huh. So we're both not seeing anyone," I grinned, unable to stop myself from glancing at Theseus's lips. I looked up to find him doing the same to me as he breathed a response.

"Neither of us is seeing anyone yet."

I don't know if it was the intense sleep deprivation, the frustration I felt with the case, or if I was just plain crazy, but I couldn't stop myself. I leaned forward and closed the space between us, pulling Theseus into a kiss.

Theseus seemed pretty shocked at first, but as soon as he got over his surprise, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer, deepening the kiss.

His free hand came up and into my hair, and I was grinning like an idiot when we finally broke apart. We were barely an inch away from each other, and I could feel Theseus' breath on my face when he spoke, barely above a whisper.

"All of the hours we put into this case, all of the work, basically becoming nocturnal to solve this... it's all suddenly worth it."

He pulled me into another slow, passionate kiss. My mind was spinning, but it wasn't from being so close to Theseus anymore.

I think he'd just given me an idea.

Reluctantly, I pulled away. I looked at Theseus in defeat; he clearly didn't want to stop, and I didn't either, but I couldn't risk losing this train of thought.

"What's the matter?" asked Theseus, suddenly looking worried.

I sighed. "I think I just had a breakthrough on the case." Theseus's eyebrows shot up, his way of asking for an explanation. "You said nocturnal. That got me thinking about a couple of choice phrases our three warehouse buddies used... in America, there's a rumor about England's Knockturn Alley. Any chance it's real?"

Theseus looked thunderstruck.

"Of course... Y/N, that makes perfect sense!" Theseus started to pull away, presumably to go to his desk and make the most of the breakthrough we'd just had, but I pulled him back.

"Promise me we'll continue this later?" I said in response to his questioning look. The confusion quickly turned to a confident grin as he swept me into his arms, pulling me into a last, lingering kiss.

"I promise. Now let's go, we have a villain to catch and a competition for you to lose!"

****************

Once Theseus and I finally saw what was staring us in the face, it didn't take long to track the ring leader and get an exact location on him. Finally.

Unfortunately for us, he apparently moved his operation to London when I caught him in New York. Everything we knew told us he'd have at least thirty men with him, ready to attack at the first sign of an auror and give him plenty of time to disappear. We had to organize an entire Ministry task force, and even then we might not have enough people to get through all the bodyguards before the target could escape.

At least Theseus and I would have plenty of people for our competition.

Theseus and I met in the lobby of the ministry on the day of the raid, about five in the morning. We were going at such a horrible time in the hopes of catching everyone in the hideout off guard. It might not work, but we were going to try for every possible advantage.

I was extremely tired and a little strung out, but just standing next to Theseus made me feel better. He gave the orders to the assembled aurors who were coming with us, and then we all disapparated to our designated points. Theseus and I were going in together, partnered up at the back entrence.

"Alright, everyone's in position. We'll move in when our man at the front gives us the sign," said Theseus.

"Sounds like a plan. And hey, don't take it to hard when you lose today. Just because Ilvermorny's better doesn't mean you're bad. It just means you're... less good."

Theseus shook his head, a grin creeping onto his face.

"You're lucky you're so smart and beautiful. Otherwise the delusions would send people running for the hills."

A grin to match Theseus's spread across my face, and I got ready to charge in once we got our signal. Between the very real stakes of this mission and the honor of my school being on the line, I had no time to waste and no room for error.

"Alright, we're going in three... two... one."

Just like last time, Theseus and I made our move as soon as the last word was spoken. We burst through the door, immediately met with ten guys who wanted to kill us. We managed to make our way through them, one after the other, and into a larger room full of wizards.

I spotted the ring leader, the jerk who'd escaped me in New York, and my focus narrowed like a laser. I went through people one by one, damn near forgetting the competition as I cut through people to the center of the room.

The target was inches from an old boot that was surely another Portkey when I hit him with a stun spell and watched him collapse. No taking him conscious this time.

I took a minute to enjoy my victory as the other aurors wrapped things up around the room, and then I turned to Theseus.

"Do I get extra points for hitting the main bad guy?"

Theseus laughed. "Never in a million years."

We helped the other aurors clean up the mess (there were quite a few unconscious wizards to deal with), and then we met back up in the middle of the room.

"Alright, give me your wand," I said, holding out my hand. "Time to tally up the scores."

Theseus did as I asked, and we both waited with baited breath as we let a spell determine the winner of the competition. Me or Theseus, Ilvermorny or Hogwarts. One would be forever victorious.

After what felt like years, our counts were in. Theseus had successfully stunned seventeen targets. I had stunned nineteen.

"Yes!" I cried, jumping up and pumping my fist in the air. "Take that, Hogwarts! Ilvermorny wins!"

Most of the rest of the Ministry wizards had left by now, but the few who hadn't gave me a very judgey look before disapparating with the last few people we'd arrested. Now it was just me and Theseus, and I was going to gloat like nobody had ever seen before.

"Alright, alright, so you beat me this time. That doesn't mean Ilvermorny is better."

"Oh, it totally does! By two whole wizards! Even less close than I thought it was going to be." Theseus playfully rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him even as I continued my rant. "This is the final answer on which school is better. There's no more room for argument, ever. I won by a mi—"

Theseus cut me off by putting a finger to my lips to stop me. I stared into his beautiful blue eyes as he spoke lowly and confidently.

"Hogwarts is definitively better."

I took a breath to argue, but the cheater kissed me before I got a chance. Once I felt his lips on mine, I couldn't help but melt into him, leaving any protests to die in my throat. Hogwarts aurors may be worse in the field, but they were certainly better at being sneaky bastards when it came to winning arguments.

After what felt like a blissful, perfect eternity with Theseus, he pulled back, giving me a cocky smile.

"Now, what were we talking about again?"

"If you really want me to get into it again I will."

"No no, that's okay," he said quickly, and I laugehd. "So, it's almost late enough for breakfast. I know the perfect little muggle place near here that should be open by the time we get there. What do you say to going on a real date, now that our case is finished?"

"I say hell yes," I said, absolutely beaming.

"Good." Theseus grabbed my hand and swung it between us as we left the hideout and stepped into the fresh morning air, the sun just starting to stretch its rays into the sky. "You know, there's a position opening up in my department."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. The Ministry's been trying to find an auror who can serve as a liason from MACUSA. We need someone who would be willing to move here, and who can work with our auror's department well."

"Theseus Scamander, are you offering me a job just to get me to stay in London?"

"No, I'm offering you a job because you're good. You staying here would just be a perk."

I turned to look at Theseus, who was smiling at me with the sweetest expression I'd ever seen. As we walked through town together, passing from the wizarding world into the muggle one, I decided there was no place on Earth I'd rather be.

"Alright, I'll talk to my department. Honestly, after everything I've done with them, I'm sure they'll say yes," I said at last. "I mean, you really do need me here more than they need me there anyway. MACUSA's got tons of Ilvermorny grads, but you've all had to make do with Hogwarts aurors for far too long."

Theseus laughed, responding with an eye roll and a shake of his head.

"Maybe we'll just have to keep our little competition going then. A few more raids like the last one, and I'm sure I'll have you beat by ten bad guys at least."

"Okay Theseus, sure. Whatever you have to tell yourself."

We kept laughing and talking all the way to the breakfast place Theseus had mentioned as the sun slowly rose in the sky. The city woke up around us, and as we sat down next to each other on our first real date I couldn't help but feel that this was the beginning of something amazing.

I'd never been happier about failing to catch the bad guy on my own.


End file.
